‘Didn’t think I’d make it out!’ Woman battles for survival after ‘vicious’ otter attack

A woman admitted to fearing she would “not make it out of the river” after she was attacked by a “vicious” otter while out with two friends.

Jen Royce was inner tubing down the Jefferson River in Montana when she suddenly spotted an otter appearing out of nowhere from behind one of her friends.

Sharing her ordeal on Facebook, Royce said she barely had any time to raise the alarm when the mammal started attacking.

She said: “I didn’t even get a chance to get the words, ‘There is an otter behind you,’ out of me before it attacked her.”

The woman tried to push off the otter from her friends by kicking it but the animal only attacked her harder, biting her face, arms, ears, hands and arms in the process.

The women ultimately managed to escape the brutal mammal by separately swimming ashore but Royce admitted to fearing for their lives as she did not immediately see her friends making it back to land.

She continued: “Without ANY exaggeration, God’s honest truth, I did not think I was going to make it out of that river.

“I had no clue if my friends were going to make it out. But by the grace of God, we did.”

The trio only had one phone available to contact 911 and it took emergency services some time to locate them because the attack took place in a remote area.

Royce said she ended up “covered in blood” and struggled to see because of the darkness and the blood pouring “out off my face and nose.”

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This article by Aurora Bosotti was first published by The Express on 14 August 2023. Lead Image: Royce was left with cuts across her face, arms, legs and hands (Image: GETTY•FACEBOOK/Jen Royce).